Sunday, December 22, 2013

This is one of only two snapshots in the lot that shows the twins together but not dressed alike.

This page includes some class pictures with lots of names of the children. Scroll down.

From two separate "antique" malls in Amarillo come this set of photographs.

The photographs are of two women who were twins. Their photographs were in a jumble with several others but the connections were obvious. From the subjects and the sparse notations on the reverse of a few, this album of the Poole Twins was assembled.

A few of them are identified on the reverse but most are not. It is difficult to tell them apart.

It appears the two were both teachers. They must have touched many lives.

They are pictured individually, occasionally with a friend or a group but mostly just the two of them. Most importantly, they are pictured with some of their school classes.

According to City Directories of the time, they apparently lived together all their lives. They lived at 503 S Gillespie, Pampa, TX and then they moved to a home at 321 Tuke, in Pampa, across the street from the school where they taught. Both buildings are gone now.

How did these family photographs become abandoned photographs? We will probably never know. But here we pay tribute to two women who apparently dedicated their lives to teaching children.

I wish I had known them.

The Poole Twins.

Oops.

Nothing on reverse.
That may be the teacher on the lower right.

This one was in the set but I'm not sure if it includes the twins or not.

Retake. No, it's not one of the children. The teacher is one of the twins!

This is the last photograph from the Poole Twins Album. On the reverse it is identified as "Miss Opal Poole". This could possibly be an aunt or a grandmother on the paternal side of the family. Or perhaps an older sister. We don't know at this point.

The photograph below appears also on page two about half way down. The notations on the reverse tell us that Opal is in the photograph but it does not tell us for sure which one she is.

2 comments:

Thanks Tattered and Lost. Yes, it's a fascinating set.There's more than a hundred photographs all together. They were scattered among hundreds of other photographs in two separate stores in Amarillo, Texas. I worked a long time on the set, as you might imagine. It is unusual that they continued to dress alike as adults. And it is interesting that they were given rather boyish names, Jackie and Jodie, which were often shortened to Jack and Joe in the few captions I found on the reverse of some photographs. They lived together and both taught school all of their lives and apparently never married. They lived across the street from the school. I included all the names I could find so maybe a past student will turn up and fill in some more information on them.